<p>Google on Saturday (March 2) restored some of the Indian applications like Bharat Matrimony and Naukri that it had delisted from its Play Store over a disagreement regarding service fee payments.</p>

<p>The development comes hours after the Centre strongly opposed the tech giant's move stating that the delisting of Indian apps cannot be permitted and that the startup ecosystem is key to the Indian economy and their fate cannot be left to any big tech to decide.</p>

<p>India's IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told news agency PTI, "India is very clear, our policy is very clear...our startups will get the protection that they need."</p>

<p>Vaishnaw had said that next week he would meet the Google officials and the app developers who were delisted.</p>

<p>"I have already called Google...I have already called the app developers who have been delisted, we will be meeting them next week. This cannot be permitted. This kind of delisting cannot be permitted," Vaishnaw asserted.</p>

<p><strong>Also read:</strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/google-removes-indian-matrimonial-job-search-apps-over-fee-dispute-695667">Google removes Indian matrimonial, job search apps over fee dispute</a></p>

<h2><strong>'Energy of youth cannot be left to the policies of any big tech,' says Vaishnaw&nbsp;</strong></h2>

<p>He said that India has created a robust startup ecosystem of over one lakh startups, and more than 100 unicorns from scratch in over a decade and that the energy of youth and entrepreneurs must be channelised fully and "cannot be left to the policies of any big tech."</p>

<p>"I will be telling Google...Our entrepreneurial energy...startups, look at the whole startup India programme, 10 years back we had practically nothing and today we have more than 1,00,000 startups, more than 100 unicorns...this is something...the energy of our youth, the energy of our entrepreneurs, the energy of our talented people that has to be channelised fully well, it cannot be left to the policies of any big tech," Vaishnaw said.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Google on Friday (March 1), justifying the move, stated that 10 firms in the country, including several "well-established" ones, did not pay the fees despite having benefitted from the platform and Play Store.</p>

<p>The dispute revolves around Indian startups' resistance to Google's imposition of service fees ranging from 11 per cent to 26 per cent on in-app payments. Despite earlier orders from antitrust authorities to revise these fees, Google gained court approval to maintain or remove apps based on compliance.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar also said that the concerns around the dominance of Google stifling competition and startups have been flagged.</p>

<p>"I have raised concerns on the dominance of Google in the past, it controls more than 90 per cent of the app ecosystem in India, the fact that they are a vertically integrated large company, we are concerned that their dominance does stifle competitions and startups, and it can be misused against startups, and there are some legitimate concerns that the government has," Chandrasekhar said.</p>

<p>Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani earlier on Saturday took to his official X account and said, "Many of the Info Edge apps are back on the play store. An effort very well led by (company MD and CEO) Hitesh and the entire Info Edge team. People were up all night for this. Great crisis management."&nbsp;</p>

<p><em>(With inputs from agencies)</em></p>


Google on Saturday (March 2) restored some of the Indian applications like Bharat Matrimony and Naukri that it had delisted from its Play Store over a disagreement regarding service fee payments.

Google on Saturday (March 2) restored some of the Indian applications like Bharat Matrimony and Naukri that it had delisted from its Play Store over a disagreement regarding service fee payments. The development comes hours after the Centre strongly opposed the tech giant's move stating that the delisting of Indian apps cannot be permitted and that the startup ecosystem is key to the Indian economy and their fate cannot be left to any big tech to decide. India's IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told news agency PTI, "India is very clear, our policy is very clear...our startups will get the protection that they need." Vaishnaw had said that next week he would meet the Google officials and the app developers who were delisted. "I have already called Google...I have already called the app developers who have been delisted, we will be meeting them next week. This cannot be permitted. This kind of delisting cannot be permitted," Vaishnaw asserted. Also read: Google removes Indian matrimonial, job search apps over fee dispute 'Energy of youth cannot be left to the policies of any big tech,' says Vaishnaw He said that India has created a robust startup ecosystem of over one lakh startups, and more than 100 unicorns from scratch in over a decade and that the energy of youth and entrepreneurs must be channelised fully and "cannot be left to the policies of any big tech." "I will be telling Google...Our entrepreneurial energy...startups, look at the whole startup India programme, 10 years back we had practically nothing and today we have more than 1,00,000 startups, more than 100 unicorns...this is something...the energy of our youth, the energy of our entrepreneurs, the energy of our talented people that has to be channelised fully well, it cannot be left to the policies of any big tech," Vaishnaw said. Google on Friday (March 1), justifying the move, stated that 10 firms in the country, including several "well-established" ones, did not pay the fees despite having benefitted from the platform and Play Store. The dispute revolves around Indian startups' resistance to Google's imposition of service fees ranging from 11 per cent to 26 per cent on in-app payments. Despite earlier orders from antitrust authorities to revise these fees, Google gained court approval to maintain or remove apps based on compliance. Meanwhile, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar also said that the concerns around the dominance of Google stifling competition and startups have been flagged. "I have raised concerns on the dominance of Google in the past, it controls more than 90 per cent of the app ecosystem in India, the fact that they are a vertically integrated large company, we are concerned that their dominance does stifle competitions and startups, and it can be misused against startups, and there are some legitimate concerns that the government has," Chandrasekhar said. Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani earlier on Saturday took to his official X account and said, "Many of the Info Edge apps are back on the play store. An effort very well led by (company MD and CEO) Hitesh and the entire Info Edge team. People were up all night for this. Great crisis management." (With inputs from agencies)

Google restores ‘delisted’ apps after Indian IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s intervention

<p>Speaking about where New Delhi stands amid the US-China chip wars at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting, the Indian Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Wednesday (Jan 17) said that it is not a battle since there is enough for everyone and how the semiconductor industry will evolve in several ways.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><strong>‘Trust is our biggest capital’</strong></h2>

<p>In response to a question about how India will navigate through the&nbsp;chip war between the US and China, Vaishnaw said that the world has developed a certain trust in New Delhi because of how the country has conducted itself, in terms of economic and foreign policies, on the international stage.&nbsp;</p>

<p>“Trust is our biggest capital. That trust gels the entire world into a harmonious way,” said the IT minister during a roundtable discussion at the gathering of global leaders in Davos, Switzerland.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>WATCH |&nbsp;Decoding the hypocrisy of global elite at Davos</strong></p>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/decoding-the-hypocrisy-of-global-elite-at-davos-679816/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<p>He also spoke about how India has signed agreements with several countries including the US, Japan and some countries in Europe on semiconductors, adding that New Delhi is also working with the South Korean government and companies.&nbsp;</p>

<p>“It’s like practically every company wants to collaborate with India in one way or another,” said Vaishnaw. He added, “So we don’t think it’s a battle, we think there is enough for everybody.”</p>

<p><strong>ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/alibaba-cancels-cloud-computing-spinoff-amid-us-china-chip-war-659601">Alibaba cancels cloud computing spinoff amid US-China chip war&nbsp;</a></strong></p>

<p>The US restricts certain chip exports, to countries such as China, Iran and Russia in a bid to prevent the development of machine learning models that power Artificial Intelligence tools.</p>

<h2><strong>Industry will evolve and so will we: Vaishnaw</strong></h2>

<p>Speaking about how dynamic and ever-changing the semiconductor industry is, he said it is not easy to predict what changes will happen in the next 10 years. “It’s something which is too complex and too dynamic and too uncertain for anyone to bet that this is how the sector will be.”&nbsp;</p>

<p>He went on to give an example of how five years ago no one thought that 28-nanometre or 40-nanometre chips would not be viable anymore but the way that the electric vehicle industry has evolved, those “legacy nodes” have become important.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/us-leads-global-public-distrust-in-innovation-survey-unveils-concerns-ahead-of-davos-summit-680080">US leads global public distrust in innovation, survey unveils concerns ahead of Davos Summit</a></strong></p>

<p>The IT minister also said that New Delhi’s “biggest priority” is on design and it is also the country’s strength given that we have around 300,000 design engineers who “practically” design every complex chip manufactured across the world and asserted that India&nbsp;is the right place to develop the semiconductor industry.&nbsp;</p>

<p><em>(With inputs from agencies)</em></p>


Speaking about where New Delhi stands amid the US-China chip wars at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting, the Indian Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Wednesday (Jan 17) said that it is not a battle since there is enough for everyone and how the semiconductor industry will evolve in several ways.

Speaking about where New Delhi stands amid the US-China chip wars at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting, the Indian Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Wednesday (Jan 17) said that it is not a battle since there is enough for everyone and how the semiconductor industry will evolve in several ways. ‘Trust is our biggest capital’ In response to a question about how India will navigate through the chip war between the US and China, Vaishnaw said that the world has developed a certain trust in New Delhi because of how the country has conducted itself, in terms of economic and foreign policies, on the international stage. “Trust is our biggest capital. That trust gels the entire world into a harmonious way,” said the IT minister during a roundtable discussion at the gathering of global leaders in Davos, Switzerland. WATCH | Decoding the hypocrisy of global elite at Davos He also spoke about how India has signed agreements with several countries including the US, Japan and some countries in Europe on semiconductors, adding that New Delhi is also working with the South Korean government and companies. “It’s like practically every company wants to collaborate with India in one way or another,” said Vaishnaw. He added, “So we don’t think it’s a battle, we think there is enough for everybody.” ALSO READ | Alibaba cancels cloud computing spinoff amid US-China chip war The US restricts certain chip exports, to countries such as China, Iran and Russia in a bid to prevent the development of machine learning models that power Artificial Intelligence tools. Industry will evolve and so will we: Vaishnaw Speaking about how dynamic and ever-changing the semiconductor industry is, he said it is not easy to predict what changes will happen in the next 10 years. “It’s something which is too complex and too dynamic and too uncertain for anyone to bet that this is how the sector will be.” He went on to give an example of how five years ago no one thought that 28-nanometre or 40-nanometre chips would not be viable anymore but the way that the electric vehicle industry has evolved, those “legacy nodes” have become important. ALSO READ | US leads global public distrust in innovation, survey unveils concerns ahead of Davos Summit The IT minister also said that New Delhi’s “biggest priority” is on design and it is also the country’s strength given that we have around 300,000 design engineers who “practically” design every complex chip manufactured across the world and asserted that India is the right place to develop the semiconductor industry. (With inputs from agencies)

‘We don’t think it’s a battle’: Indian IT minister about US-China chip war at Davos

<p>The Indian government on Tuesday (Dec 26) issued a directive to social media companies to curb deepfake content on their platforms.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asked Facebook, Instagram, X and others to remove AI-generated deceptive videos and comply with Information Technology (IT) Rules.</p>

<p>Deepfake technology allows anyone to be impersonated using their images. The government’s advisory stated clearly that the platforms need to increase awareness about the prohibited content among their users.</p>

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Misinformation represents a deep threat to the safety and trust of users on the Internet.<br />
<br />
➡️ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Deepfake?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Deepfake</a> which is misinformation powered by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AI</a>, further amplifies the threat to safety and trust of our <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DigitalNagriks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DigitalNagriks</a>.<br />
<br />
➡️ On 17th November, PM <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@narendramodi</a> ji alerted the country… <a href="https://t.co/QM38gPOt7O">pic.twitter.com/QM38gPOt7O</a></p>
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rajeev_GoI/status/1739665244992291068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 26, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

<p>As per Indian IT rules, social media platforms must ensure that activities that cause 11 listed harms are not carried out.</p>

<h2><strong>These 11 listed user harms include:</strong></h2>

<p>1. Threats to national security or unity, defence of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order<br />
2. Child pornography<br />
3. Obscenity or vulgarity<br />
4. Disinformation or false or misleading information<br />
5. Insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, religion, race, etc<br />
6. Personal information without consent<br />
7. Impersonation of another person<br />
8. Commercial fraud or deception<br />
9. Deception or cheating in online games<br />
10. Software viruses or malware<br />
11. Any other unlawful activity</p>

<h2><strong>Deepfake menace</strong></h2>

<p>The year 2023 witnessed rapid advancements in the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) arena, which has led to the widespread deepfake menace on social media.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/lifestyle/news-explained-what-are-deepfakes-and-how-to-spot-them-655753"><strong>Also read:&nbsp;Explained | What are deepfakes and how to spot them?</strong></a></p>

<p>Deepfakes of several Indian actresses, including Rashmika Mandanna, Kajol, Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif and even business tycoon Ratan Tata and more have surfaced on the internet in the past couple of months.</p>

<h2><strong>Ripple CEO deepfake controversy</strong></h2>

<p>One such major deepfake controversy emerged last week when a fake video featuring the CEO of US-based crypto solutions provider Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, emerged on YouTube.</p>

<p>The video, which appeared real, showed the CEO asking people to invest in a fraudulent crypto scheme.</p>

<p><strong>Watch:&nbsp;1 lakh fine, 3 years jail for creating deepfakes</strong></p>

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</div>
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<p>When Google was made aware of this deepfake scam, the social media giant failed to take down the video immediately.</p>

<h2><strong>Words of caution from Indian PM</strong></h2>

<p>Indian PM Narendra Modi, who himself has been a victim of AI deepfake on the Indian internet, also highlighted the need to regulate AI and be alert while using new technologies.</p>

<p>"We have to be careful with new technology. If these are used carefully, they can be very useful. However, if these are misused, it can create huge problems. You must be aware of deepfake videos made with the help of generative AI," he said while speaking at an event.</p>

<p><em>(With inputs from agencies)</em></p>


The Indian government on Tuesday (Dec 26) issued a directive to social media companies to curb deepfake content on their platforms. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asked Facebook, Instagram, X and others to remove AI-generated deceptive videos and comply with Information Technology (IT) Rules.

The Indian government on Tuesday (Dec 26) issued a directive to social media companies to curb deepfake content on their platforms. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asked Facebook, Instagram, X and others to remove AI-generated deceptive videos and comply with Information Technology (IT) Rules. Deepfake technology allows anyone to be impersonated using their images. The government’s advisory stated clearly that the platforms need to increase awareness about the prohibited content among their users. Misinformation represents a deep threat to the safety and trust of users on the Internet. ➡️ #Deepfake which is misinformation powered by #AI, further amplifies the threat to safety and trust of our #DigitalNagriks. ➡️ On 17th November, PM @narendramodi ji alerted the country… pic.twitter.com/QM38gPOt7O — Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) December 26, 2023 × As per Indian IT rules, social media platforms must ensure that activities that cause 11 listed harms are not carried out. These 11 listed user harms include: 1. Threats to national security or unity, defence of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order 2. Child pornography 3. Obscenity or vulgarity 4. Disinformation or false or misleading information 5. Insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, religion, race, etc 6. Personal information without consent 7. Impersonation of another person 8. Commercial fraud or deception 9. Deception or cheating in online games 10. Software viruses or malware 11. Any other unlawful activity Deepfake menace The year 2023 witnessed rapid advancements in the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) arena, which has led to the widespread deepfake menace on social media. Also read: Explained | What are deepfakes and how to spot them? Deepfakes of several Indian actresses, including Rashmika Mandanna, Kajol, Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif and even business tycoon Ratan Tata and more have surfaced on the internet in the past couple of months. Ripple CEO deepfake controversy One such major deepfake controversy emerged last week when a fake video featuring the CEO of US-based crypto solutions provider Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, emerged on YouTube. The video, which appeared real, showed the CEO asking people to invest in a fraudulent crypto scheme. Watch: 1 lakh fine, 3 years jail for creating deepfakes × When Google was made aware of this deepfake scam, the social media giant failed to take down the video immediately. Words of caution from Indian PM Indian PM Narendra Modi, who himself has been a victim of AI deepfake on the Indian internet, also highlighted the need to regulate AI and be alert while using new technologies. "We have to be careful with new technology. If these are used carefully, they can be very useful. However, if these are misused, it can create huge problems. You must be aware of deepfake videos made with the help of generative AI," he said while speaking at an event. (With inputs from agencies)

India orders social media companies to curb deepfake content after PM raises concerns

NSO snooping row now raised in Indian Parliament, Indian IT Minister replies in writing. Watch this video to understand the complete matter.

NSO snooping row now raised in Indian Parliament, Indian IT Minister replies in writing